What are the fashions on the food scene
at the moment and what are the trends ?.
These are my interpretations from reading,
listening, buying and most importantly eating lots of food.
Street Food
There is an incredible growth in the number of outlets offering
their interpretation of street food, other than greasy burgers and bacon
butties. Presently they are mainly in London but the concept is spreading
around the country, generally where there is a vibrant community, markets and a
night scene. and covering a vast number of world cuisines, the growth is
because of high cost of setting up a restaurant, selling from a stall on a
market or from a mobile unit is a budget way of starting a business and several
restaurants started out as street vendors before setting up a permanent operation.
They have become known as Mobilers,
men and women who are trying to carve out their living on the streets. Who love
food, but don’t necessarily have the money to open a restaurant. They are good,
old-fashioned entrepreneurs. But some street food sellers are more
entrepreneurial than others.
Why they are so
popular: The modern consumer likes informality, likes to ‘Eat on the Go’ and
wants to try new tastes without breaking the bank.
Some current examples are:
Rainha Santa
The whole roast pig is becoming ubiquitous in food markets,
but this one uses outdoor reared organic pork. Marinaded in garlic, fennel and
rosemary adds an Iberian twist – and it is good value at £4.80 a roll. Finish
off the Portuguese experience with a pastel de nata (custard tart, £1).
Ca Phe VN - Hackney
Vietnamese coffee, served with Banh mi – the French/Vietnamese sandwich being sold more and more
around the city, Here it’s made with home -made pork liver pâté, own-made
pickled vegetables, cured pork, coriander and chilli, served in a baguette for
a really cheap £2.50. There are a few rows of seats and tables on the
street next to the stall to sit and watch Hackney go by, and on a hot day, a
Vietnamese iced espresso goes down a treat (£2).
Il Carretino
A dinky little hand cart with a parasol, which sells
Italian-style ice cream made in Hackney. There are only three flavours
(vanilla, chocolate, strawberry).
Sprinkle chopped nuts over your tub or chocolate cone (£2.50).
Veggie Table- London
Fields,
The Veggie Table grills home-made vegetable/halloumi burgers
(from £5) and also have big bowls filled with inspired yet simple salads, such
as potato or cannellini bean (£4).
Broadway Market, E8 (www.broadwaymarket.co.uk). Cambridge
Heath or London Fields rail. 10am-5pm Saturday.
Grilled, Fried & Tagine Fish
Coming down Golborne Road from Westbourne Park/Elkstone
Road, this is the first stall on the right (Friday and Saturday only). Perch on
a stool and enjoy mini fish tagines, a
platter of calamari, or a Moroccan spiced salmon steak for £5 – or chermoula-fried sardine in a roll with owner
Hmid’s special chilli sauce for £3. Next door is a burger van (Monday to
Saturday), bearing the legend Moroccan soups written above the menu on the
side, which is often surrounded by locals sitting and chatting. Try the spicy Harira, or the milder strained lentil
soup with a squeeze of lemon. Neither will set you back more than a couple of
pounds.
Along Golborne Road is an un-named kebab stall, a locals’
favourite, open Monday to Saturday, serving lamb, chicken or beef kebabs and
some lamb kofte, all cooked to order on a large charcoal grill. These meats are
served in a baguette with salad and sauce for £3.50.
Next door is a falafel stall – again unnamed – selling
freshly fried falafels wrapped in flatbread with salad, chilli-peanut sauce and
houmous. A small wrap costs £2.50, a large one £3. This is another Monday to
Saturday stall,
Jerk Shack
On Saturdays, the space next to these stalls is occupied by Jerk Shack. This weekly stall opened
following the success of a temporary stand at the Notting Hill Carnival in
2008. It’s proprietor offers jerk
chicken, curry goat, snapper, rice and peas, coleslaw and fried plantain as
well as sweet, sugar-dusted ‘festival’ buns. A hearty meal of curry, rice,
coleslaw and plantain to take away or eat on the stall’s table costs £5.
Ethiopian Cuisine
This newest of all the market’s stalls offers Ethiopian
specialties such as the dahl-like lentil
stew called doro wat, sour-tasting injera flatbread and lots of Ethiopian
coffee !!. A full meal costs around £5.
Happy Vegetarian
After a run of fruit and veg stalls on Portobello Road, on your left is Happy Vegetarian (Monday to
Saturday), which is another falafel stall selling similar wraps to the stall on
Golborne Road, but with a larger range of salads and a shorter queue.
Jollof Pot
Jollof Pot (Saturday only) outside the Electric Cinema. One
of a small chain, it offers a range of Ghanaian
stews, soups and rice dishes which are handily sitting in large open pans
so you can get a good look before choosing. A small selection of rice and two
stews costs £5.
Golborne Road and Portobello Road, W10/W11. Ladbroke Rd
tube. Many stalls are there 9am-4pm Mon-Fri, but all are there for the main
market on Saturdays. The market is open from 8am-6.30pm but many stalls set up
late and leave early, so 11am-4pm is the best time to visit.
Son of Pampa
At the market’s north entrance, one of the first stalls is
Son of Pampa. There’s a hot grill on one side for Argentinian-style chivitos (barbecue sandwiches): they’re
filled with imported grass-fed beef steak or free-range marinated chicken, chimichurri sauce and salad, and served
on a hand-made ciabatta for £4. On the other side, a little fryer is kept busy
making fresh churros – deep fried sticks of dough, filled with dulce de leche (caramel sauce) or
chocolate, rolled in sugar and cinnamon (£2).
Sausages Ltd
A spicy Louisiana-style
Creole sausage sandwich with roast peppers and onions for £4.
Goddards
At the far end of Fountain Food Court (near the Antiques
Market) look out for this surviving outlet of the pie and mash business founded
in 1890 in Deptford. Expect good-quality renditions of the traditional bill of meat pie and mash with liquor (£3), jellied
eels and fruit pies – It is open at weekends from 9.30am to 6pm.
The Real Baking Company
Longstanding market favourite The Real Baking Company
features picture-perfect display of beautiful home-made cupcakes and other sweet
treats which start at £1.
Fountain Food Court
Recently opened Baguette & More serves the unusual banh mi Vietnamese sandwich (see
Banhmi11, Broadway Market).
Spinach & Agushi
Approaching Exmouth Market from the Farringdon Road end, the
first stall you come across on the right is this Ghanaian takeaway . Try the
‘small’ tub of jollof rice with two
stews for only a fiver (the ‘large’ is very large). Jollof rice resembles a
tomato-hued paella; the alternative carbohydrate is freshly fried plantain.
Several stews bubble away on gas hobs right under your nose, so you just pick
out the ones you like the smell and look of best – the lamb has a piquant
flavour and spicy aroma, and there are at least a couple of good vegetarian
options, including the delicious spinach
and agushi (ground melon seeds).
Simply Thai
All the usual Thai staples in plastic tubs for around £4.40.
Moro
This black-canopied tent, serves up a single dish that
changes day by day – lamb kebab with Turkish salad; couscous, bread and
own-made yogurt for a fiver; or perhaps aubergine, chicken and pilav rice.
Seed
A buffet-style vegetarian salad ba
Gujarati Rasoi
The appetising range
of dishes is ‘pure vegetarian’ – no eggs, even – with a thali (£5.50) giving a choice of two curries with rice and
sauces. They’re all good, and the snacks (samosa, bonda etc) are also fresh
and well made.
The Jewish Deli,
A prominent ‘Hot Salt Beef’ sandwich board. A traditional hot salt beef on rye with
mustard and pickles costs £4.95, though there are also modern fusion
oddities such as tortilla wraps filled
with fish balls, or freshly fried chicken schnitzel and fresh roast salmon on wild rice (£5).
Freebird
Easily identified by its Mexican flags, yep, a burrito place, and very popular, too, with chicken, steak, pork (‘carnitas’) or veg
filling all costing £5.00 guacamole 50p extra.
Sawadee
At the north end of the market (off Old Street), a queue
snakes around a single cart – Sawadee dishes out aromatic Thai curries, from
your standard green to a mild massaman for a mere £3.50.
Ravello Italian
An outpost of the restaurant of the same name on Old Street,
the array of pastas (£3.50 for medium and £4.50 for large) is enough to feed
the 5,000.
The Roast of Sharwood
Here they proudly proclaim to serve hearty ‘manwiches’ – fat slabs of ciabatta stuffed with slices
of their herby hog roast (with fennel, garlic and rosemary). It’s £4 for a
regular-sized bap; the macho eater can pay £5 for a doorstop of sarnie.
Hoxton Beach
Massive falafel wraps (from £3 to £4.50 depending on size)
complete with pickled radish, stained pink with beetroot juice.
Luardo’s
A most distinctive stall is Luardo’s, a retro turquoise van
doling out larger-than-life burritos. The
most expensive is beef cooked with chipotle (£5); add extras such as
guacamole for 50p, or even chorizo.
Guarana
They serve rib-eye
sandwiches (£4.50), the Brazilian
chef cooks up a mean feijoada (pork and
bean stew) as well as bake chewy pão de queijo (cheese buns).
Eat My Pies
At this retro British
stall you’ll find the likes of Thai red
curry Scotch eggs (£3) and rare roast beef and Yorkshire pudding bap (£3).
Whitecross St, EC1Y (www.whitecrossstreet.co.uk). Old St
tube/rail or Barbican tube. Speciality food market 11am-5pm* Thur-Fri; some
stalls operate on other weekdays as well.
Little Oranges
Italian street food,
which is ambitious and very different to anything at other London street
markets. crispeddi (anchovy and dill fritters) for £3, or the cazilli (little
potato and cheese croquettes) for £3.50, or arancini (‘little oranges’ of
filled, deep-fried rice balls): two for £4.
Love Me Tender
Hog roast named after an Elvis song (unless there’s a
‘Delicious Rinds’ somewhere out there), which does a great, herby pork roll with apple sauce and
rocket.
De La Panza
Grilling prime
Argentinian steaks for sandwiches (£4.50 for rump, £5.50 for rib-eye, and an
extra £1 for melted provolone). It also does a sausage ciabatta (choripan) with
roasted red peppers for £3.
Rootmaster
Not technically a stall (although being a Routemaster bus,
it’s both mobile and temporary) this is a fixture of the market which has been
serving vegetarian and vegan food for about two years.
Ely’s Yard, The Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, E1 6QL (the
market is just off Hanbury St). 11am-4pm Fri; 11am-6pm Sat; 10am-5pm Sun.
Sunday is the best day to visit, as there are many stalls which are only there
on that day.
Jamon Jamon
Paella stall
Jamon Jamon at the Real Food market behind the Royal Festival Hall on the
Southbank, and Portobello Road market in W11. With at least two huge
paella pans on the go. Alongside seafood, the
paella Valenciana is a favourite (chicken and runner beans)
Kimchi Cult
Korean-style fast
food venture , Korean-inspired sliders
(miniature burgers topped with kimchi- Korean sauerkraut.
Lucky Chip
One of the delights of Netil market is this pop-up
homage to the 50s American diner experience. Hand-cut chips with the skins on, served with wasabi mayo and sweet
chilli, and juicy, meaty aged beef burgers topped with cheddar. Who can
fault it? They're at Netil market (Westgate Street, London Fields, E8) every
Saturday.
On Cafe
Not traditional street food, but sweet tooths will be
delighted by the mouth-watering macaroons. Regulars at the Real Food
market, they also make Japanese-inspired macaroons, black sesame, and jasmine and charcoal macaroons, and was blown
away.
Churros Garcia
Churros Garcia represents all that is wonderful about the
street-food revival. A Spanish family business that makes churros by hand , you
can find them at Broadway Market, Real Food market and Portobello
market. Churros
Well Kneaded Wagon
Firebread is this
little red-and-cream food van's answer to pizza. With a clay oven built into
the back, they churn out chewy sourdough bases loaded with fresh toppings, beetroot, goat's cheese and spinach but
they also do a sweet pizza with a maple-syrup base topped with apples, cinnamon,
and walnuts. Battersea High Street market (Battersea High Street, SW11)
Yum Bun
Yum Bun serve Free range Blythburgh pork, slow roasted then gently fried, stuffed into a rice
bun and toppedwith hoi sin sauce, cucumber, spring onions and sriracha. There's
also a veggie option and Asian broths
and soups to try.Broadway market (Broadway market, London, E8 4QG) on
Saturdays
I hope you get the idea now, an opportunity to taste
the world on the street, flavours that influence the future .
.
